Peres pens poem for Olympics

August 6, 2008 9:00am

Shimon Peres composed a poem in honor of the Olympic Games.

The Israeli president, on the eve of his departure to Beijing to meet the rest of his country’s delegation Wednesday, published a poem that he composed in English to honor the Games and their message of world peace:

“Birds of all feathers come and sing together.
A hymn of hope in an Olympic nest.
Forget your borders, ignore your cages and fly free.
Reject your different nightmares and have one dream.
The same dream, of glory, of harmony, of peace.
An equal dream for poor and rich, black and white. An equal right to compete and champion.
Run and throw, shoot and swim and pin, row and hit.
You can be the best on our globe.
Win, don’t kill, lose, don’t hate, Hope, don’t regret.
Go home with an olive branch in your lips: together in harmony. Breathing fresh air and singing for the newly born in the cradles and the nests.”

Peres’ office said he would use his visit to China to encourage international powers to keep up their efforts to deny Iran the means to make atomic weapons.